When you’re an Addams

Who would have ever thought that a family who: lives in a mansion in Central Park, parties in a graveyard, and has house full of Spanish Inquisition-era torture devices would become the new definition of normal in musical theater?  And yet that’s exactly what America’s most macabre family, The Addams Family, is doing during their month long run at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  While most tours tend to be second-rate versions of their Broadway predecessors, this production is just the opposite.  Always the trendsetters, The Addams Family musical is a representation of shows who are correcting their flaws and hitting the road to prove that there is life beyond the “great white way.”

Broadway shows tend to live a cyclical life.  They open in New York, followed by a national tour, a possible London production and then life in regional theater including high school productions.  If a show is really good, a Broadway revival is usually waiting in the wings two decades after the original production.  During this time, the show rarely changes form.  What was on-stage in the original Broadway production is the show that goes on tour and licensed for community theater groups.  Not the case though with The Addams Family.

The show opened on Broadway to negative reviews in April 2010.  This followed a particularly turbulent pre-Broadway engagement in Chicago where numerous songs were cut, and a rumor started that the show was in trouble.  Between Chicago and New York, the creative team went back to work, and while the show was better, The Addams Family just didn’t snap (insert your own Addams Family theme joke here!).

Despite the bad reviews, the show played on Broadway for a respectable 725 performances, earning back 70% of production costs.  When a national tour was announced, everyone in the theater community thought it would be the same show that played New York.  The producers had another idea.  After watching the show for two years, they finally understood the main problem, and had an idea on how to fix it.

In the show, Wednesday Addams shocks her family by announcing her engagement.  Even worse for the family is that her fiancé is normal.  How normal?  He’s from Ohio.  The Broadway production tended to focus on Wednesday’s story; however the producers discovered that the audience cared more about her parent’s story, Gomez and Morticia adjusting to their daughter growing up.  To fix this, the creative team rewrote several key scenes, cut several old songs and added three new songs.  The result was a refocused plot, a tightened show and much better reviews on tour.

So why did the creative team do this?  Simple, to enhance the show’s commercial value.  Broadway musicals are expensive.  They usually cost roughly $10-30 million dollars to produce and can take years to go from the page to the stage.   That being said, when a production flops, it decreases a show’s potential earning ability on tour, and even to be licensed in regional theater.  The Addams Family team knew they had a show with a recognizable commodity; it just needed to find its core.

While once rare, it’s becoming more common for shows to be improved before going on tour.  Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose most recent show Lover Never Dies, the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera which famously flopped in London (more on that in an upcoming post), recently went to Australia to work on a revised version of the show.  The result was a much improved show which was so successful Universal Pictures choose to film it and distribute world-wide on DVD.

I think more shows are going to follow this trend.  The gestation period for a musical is so long, that a production really doesn’t have an excuse for failure.  For audiences though, my hope is that this will only improve the quality of musicals.  I for one, thoroughly enjoyed The Addams Family and have recommended it to everyone.  Although I can’t be surprised that The Addams Family has started a new trend.  As the clan famously sings during their opening number:

When you’re an Addams,
The standard answers don’t apply!

The Addams Family is at the Kennedy Center thru July 29th.  To purchase tickets please visit: http://www.kennedy-center.org/events/?event=TMTSE

The Addams Family is also on tour.  To see if it is playing in your town please visit: http://theaddamsfamilymusicaltour.com/

The GOPs Act I Finale

Act I finales are meant to do one thing, get the audience to come back after intermission.  They can involve flying witches (Wicked), crashing chandeliers (The Phantom of the Opera) or even an attempt to roll back time (Steel Pier).  The House Republican majority is facing their Act I finale this week, and what are they doing to sway voters? A magic trick that has failed 33 times before – voting to repeal Obamacare.

The US House of Representatives will vote to repeal Obamacare today for the 33^rd time.  It will probably be the last attention-getting action the House receives before the summer delves in Olympic madness and political convention correctness.   Let’s be clear, this vote is an attempt to pander to the far right, triggered after last month’s Supreme Court ruling, and it’s the absolute worst image to leave voters with in an election year.

Part of the Republican Party’s problem is determining what to do after repealing Obamacare.  This is an enigma for Republicans, especially considering that Americans tend to favor Democratic over Republican ideas on healthcare.  While Americans remain divided on Obamacare, a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that President Obama had a 15% lead over Governor Romney when it came to public views on healthcare.  Why is this so?

The answer is simple, the Republican message has been repeal and replace.  But they haven’t clearly articulated what they would replace Obamacare with.  In addition, while Obamacare may be bad public policy; it contains measures that everyone can universally accept.  Example: Insurance companies can no longer deny someone with a pre-existing condition.  It’s hard to argue in opposition to that regulation, no matter the subsequent financial and logistical challenges.

The musical Steel Pier features a great Act I finale where the main character reverses time to correct a mistake made by the woman he loves.  However the catch is that the leading man isn’t necessarily (at the risk of giving away any spoilers) of-this-world, and his actions goes unbeknown to his love interest.  Unfortunately for the Republican Party, reversing time is not an option, but their actions this week can be just as daring.

American’s are worried about how Obamacare will affect the quality of healthcare, and potentially increase taxes and the size of the federal government.  Republicans, both House and Senate, in conjunction with the Romney campaign, should propose an alternative to Obamacare.  Their proposal must include the free market reforms/regulations they would enact to ensure that every American has healthcare.

Be bold, present a solution that aspires to lower costs, be deficit neutral, and retain the positive features of Obamacare.  Elections are about choices, so why not give the American people a real choice.  Plus with the American public’s uneasiness over Obamacare, this maybe the Republican Party’s only opportunity to make a real difference on the healthcare front.

In a few days the Act I curtain will descend on Congress as they adjourn for their summer recess.  All real work will continue, but not until after the election with the lame duck session.  The House Republican majority is up for election, and so is the majority in the Senate, not to mention the marquee prize, the presidency.  Republicans need to give voters a reason why they should be returned to the majority, and this time in both houses of Congress.  However, simply voting to repeal Obamacare for the 33^rd time will not entice voters to return for a second act.

Healthcare in Camelot

Regardless of your political ideology no one can be pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision on, and even the legislative outcome of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.  In a country facing a tremendous healthcare crisis, it’s disheartening and frustrating that Obamacare represents Congress’ best attempt to overhaul healthcare in America.

If you’re a true philosophical liberal you can’t be happy with Obamacare.  Remove the politics of it all, and what you have is an extremely watered-down version of universal healthcare, if that.  Even worse is the reality that because of the way Congress passed the bill, Obamacare could be gutted through legislative maneuvers and executive orders.  A most certain fate should Governor Romney be elected president, or the Republicans gain control of the Senate.

As for conservatives, Obamacare increases the government’s role in domestic welfare; while its’ implementation will be the worst free market reforms to the economy since the Dodd-Frank legislation.  Finally, Obamacare’s fate is the almost certain truth that it will probably take its place next to Social Security and Medicare as an untouchable entitlement program.

So what do I want? A return to Camelot.

At the end of Act I of Lerner’s and Lowe’s idealistic retelling of the Arthurian legend, King Arthur states:

This is the time of King Arthur and we reach for the stars!  This is the time of King Arthur, and violence is not strength and compassion is not weakness.  We are civilized!

It’s Arthur’s acknowledgement,that in an imperfect society he is going to strive to for a higher moral calling.  Above the pettiness of turf wars, the ignorance of science and education, and expected duty, Arthur is going to make Camelot a symbol of good government.

I am not oblivious to reality: that lobbyists, money, 24/7 news media coverage and campaigns, make it hard for Congress to accomplish much.  However, there’s going to be a point when we realize that this broken wheel can’t be fixed.  When enough damage has been inflicted, and a course for self-correction must be charted.  Good government isn’t sexy, and can seem like a foolish cause to champion.  A pledge, action, and resolve are needed to repair our society, restore our moral character and reverse the discourse of politics in America.

The Affordable Care Act’s main goal of making sure that every American has healthcare is noble. But intentions are worthless until they become a reality.  An industry which roughly 15% of America’s Gross Domestic Product deserves more attention, and better public policy reforms, than Obamacare provides.  If Congress is going to discuss healthcare than everything must be on the table including: Medicare and defining the government’s role so as to assert personal responsibility on every American for their own personal health and well-being.

In my home is a framed Playbill from the original Broadway production of Camelot starring Julie Andrews and Richard Burton. On the cover is Burton, as Arthur, showing his young bride, Andrews, Camelot for the first time.  It’s a symbol of hope, a symbol that striving to do the right thing is noble, and not foolish.  Every American deserves healthcare, and the system deserves reform, and more than Obamacare affords it.